My son has a 1997 4x4 ...it has been parked since it needed rack and pinion work we were also working in colorado for the past 3 years and we live in Arkansas...anyhow we are in the process of getting truck running again ...I am no mech by any means but I am learning....our mech pulled the rack out and is saying the front axle wont engage into 4x4 mode and that it is locked up he doesn't know if the transfer case is good or not ...I was wondering how hard it would be to just have a solid axle with manual lock installed ...thanks for any input

Putting a solid axle under one of these trucks is a good little project. If you look around at different sites they make kits to do it, but if you haven't ever done it before then it will take a while. It is definitely not a weekend project and from what I've been reading it can get pretty expensive. I would get a price on fixing it and then go from there.